“I’m disappointed that we don’t have him, I’ll be honest, but we didn’t have a place for him,” Gordon said Tuesday at the Sprint Media Tour. “I think Chip did a great job scooping him up and backing him the way they have and giving him opportunities to go showcase his talent and now getting him into Cup, where he truly belongs.”

Gordon calls Larson “an incredible talent” and says he regrets that he and Hendrick were not able to strike a deal with Larson.

“I had him sitting in my chair in my office talking to him about his future, and I’m disappointed that we weren’t able to put something together,” he said. “But I’m very happy for him and our sport is going to benefit from it.”

KESELOWSKI WANTS TO BE LIKE RICHARD SHERMAN

Brad Keselowski is known for speaking his mind.

He got called into a meeting with Brian France last February after making comments critical of the NASCAR business model. He later ripped NASCAR and accused it of targeting his team in the inspection bay. He disputed the use of baseline testing to determine the impact of concussions and whether drivers should be cleared to race.

Keselowski seems to enjoy speaking his mind and spouting opinions. But he doesn’t like to pay fines.

“I don’t think (being outspoken) helped me,” Keselowski said Wednesday. “Nobody wrote me any checks for being outspoken. Maybe I did it wrong.

“I need to get some lessons from Richard Sherman.”

Sherman, of course, is the Seattle Seahawks cornerback who made headlines recently for his postgame rant following the NFC championship game against San Francisco.

Roger Penske, team owner for Keselowski, said there’s nothing Keselowski needs to change.

“Brad is Brad,” Penske said. “I don’t think he got way off the reservation. Maybe the comments about NASCAR and a couple of other things got him in trouble early on.

“But overall I think NASCAR likes him. I think he brings a different viewpoint to the sport, which is as important to you as it is to me. Our sponsors love him. They don’t want a guy that just sits in his couch. Miller and the team are interested in seeing a guy that speaks his peace, and I think that’s what he did last year.”

ROUSH ON VACATION? WHAT?

Team co-owner Jack Roush wasn’t present Wednesday for the media briefing by Roush Fenway Racing. He was on vacation.

Roush Fenway officials swear that Roush wasn’t being rude. And most in the media believed that was the case given Roush’s work ethic and hands-on approach.

“(We) have been badgering him to take a vacation, take some time off, do what normal people do and he always kind of dismissively looks at us and says, ‘Hey, this is my passion. This is what I want to do. I don’t have any desire to go on vacation,’” team president Steve Newmark said. “So we’ve been very unsuccessful in twisting his arm.

“What we realized a couple months ago is that we were using the wrong tools in our arsenal and that we had a secret weapon in our arsenal that we weren’t aware of because a couple months ago his grandkids went ahead and planned a vacation for him, didn’t tell him. Just went ahead and said, ‘Hey, you’re coming with us on a Disney vacation.’

“And lo and behold, he has gone off and done that.”

While the Roush drivers joked about not having seen Roush recently, they actually have.

“Jack has been at every meeting, everything,” driver Greg Biffle said. “He’s so into us wining and competing in 2014. He’s been in all of it. This is the first thing he has (missed). I’m sure it was a tough decision for him, but I’m proud of him.”

JOHNSON’S NEW BUZZWORD — SE7EN

When Jimmie Johnson won his fifth Sprint Cup championship, he quickly acquired a new nickname — “Five-Time.”

As he raced for his sixth title, his goal was the “Six-Pack,” which he used as a #hashtag in tweets and as his team’s unofficial buzzword.

So now that he’s racing for a record-tying seventh championship, what’s his catchphrase for this season?

Ricky, a former Hendrick Motorsports driver and the son of team owner Ricky Hendrick, was killed in a plane crash with nine other family members and friends in 2004.

Johnson had the inspiration for the stylized number as Hendrick Motorsports honored Ricky’s memory at the team Christmas party in December.

“We were at our company Christmas party and his favorite band, O.A.R., was playing and the whole moment kinda came to a head,” Johnson said Tuesday. “The whole family, everybody is there reliving the Ricky moments and talking about him and watching his favorite band play, and I left there thinking, ‘This is it, it’s got to be seven, and the way that Ricky used it and wrote it,’ so that’s going to be the hashtag.”

They stylized word “Se7en’ was derived from the 1995 movie Seven, which starred Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman as detectives chasing a serial killer who used the seven deadly sins as his modus operandi.

“This will finally give the way it was written a positive outlook,” Johnson said.

If Johnson can win a seventh title, he would tie hall-of-fame drivers Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt. For the past few years, he has downplayed the record and his place it history.

But as he said Tuesday, “It’s hard to hide from it now.”

SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO?

A common question for Marcos Ambrose is whether he is happy competing in NASCAR and if he will move his family back to his native Australia.

Petty Motorsports officials have speculated that 2014 could be Ambrose’s last season in stock cars. Ambrose, who has competed in NASCAR since 2006, likely could land a V8 Supercar ride in Australia as a former champion in that series.

Some Australian websites also have predicted that 2014 would be his last in the United States.

What does he think of all the speculation in his homeland?

“They have been (having me leave NASCAR) every year I’ve been over here I think,” Ambrose said. “I think they had me home before I even left.”